Winning Nursing Bowl team is 'RN-ed and Dangerous'

Congratulations to the ‘RN-ed and Dangerous’ team, winner of today’s Germanna Community College Nursing Bowl, posing here with GCC Dean of Nursing Patti Lisk at the Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper. Left to right are Jennifer Fortin, Kaitlyn Badal, Rebecca Weigeshoff, Spencer Stone, Lisk and Sara Schott. The event was a test of nursing knowledge under pressure, before an audience of about 300 nursing students, faculty and staff.

Deadline to sign up for Affordable Care Act approaching

We wanted to remind you that the deadline to sign up for the new health insurance options made available under the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) is March 31^st.

 

If you are like 8 out of 10 Americans, and you already have health insurance through your job, or the VA, or Medicare you are set.  But if you don’t have health insurance, there is a way for you to get health care that you can afford, even if you were previously denied for a pre-existing condition. Plans that are offered through the new health insurance marketplace are required to cover the basics — doctor visits, hospital stays, preventive care, prescriptions and more, and you may be able to get help paying for the cost of your new insurance or qualify for low cost options.  

 

Depending on your income you might even be eligible for savings or even health care for free.  If you do not have health insurance already and don't enroll by March 31st, you may not be able to get health insurance again until next year.  Just call 1-800-318-2596 or visit HealthCare.gov.  The majority of people without insurance today will be able to find a plan for $100 a month or less. If you need help with your application, you can also visitgetcoveredamerica.org/locator to make an appointment with local help. They can answer any questions you may have and walk you through the application process.

 

We hope this information is helpful for you as the March 31^st deadline approaches.

 

Bess Evans

Senior Policy Advisor for Public Engagement

White House Office of Public Engagement

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

 

Enroll by phone, 24/7: 1-800-318-2596

#getcovered

Find out more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQG8eZs8AJc&feature=youtu.be

 

GCC Board hears updates on expansion plans for Stafford, Culpeper

The Germanna Community College Board learned Thursday that the college expects a bid proposal next week from Stantec for a master plan study on the proposed permanent Stafford County site near Stafford Hospital.

The existing temporary Germanna Stafford County Center off U.S. 1 at Aquia exceeded its capacity of 1,000 in 2009, the year it opened.  A permanent Stafford site might eventually serve over 5,000 students. Germanna currently serves a total headcount of about 13,000 credit and workforce training students at campuses in Spotsylvania and Locust Grove and centers in Culpeper and Stafford.

The meeting was held at Germanna’s Stafford Automotive Technology site on Blackjack Road.

In other action:

• The board approved a proposed Student Development course requirement change to require all curricular students, except those in career studies certificate programs, to take a student development course in their first semester, effective Fall 2014. The move brings GCC into alignment with a new Virginia Community College System policy. 
• The board was told the college expects to send out for bidding next week detailed drawings for a design for a modular building to house office and meeting space at the Germanna Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper.  The 1,500-square-foot building will house eight to 10 new faculty offices. A very early estimate is that it might cost about $300,000.
• The board was told completion of new signs at the Fredericksburg Area Campus in Spotsylvania, the Locust Grove Campus and the Daniel Technology Center is expected by Summer 2014, pending permit approval. The signs will be 20 feet to 23.5 feet tall and 10 feet wide with an electronic component that will allow the digital display of  messages and alerts to oncoming traffic. “The signs will allow us to do announcements and advertising and post emergency information,” Germanna President David A. Sam explained.

Marking 20 years of fun that pays off for students with financial need

Local students have been Scholarship Monte Carlo Night's big winners.
On April 5, the event, which benefits the Germanna Community College Educational Foundation, marks 20 years of fun that pays off for students with financial need.
Over that time, it's raised more than $1 million for the Germanna Guarantee Program, which last year helped 200 students for whom financial need might have been a barrier to attending college.
More from Thursday's Culpeper Times.

Single tickets are $90 and sponsorship levels ranging from $350 to $5,000 are available.
For more information, contact the GCC Educational Foundation at foundation@germanna.edu or 540/423-9074 or Event Chair Clarissa Berry at 540/718-0000 or clarissa.berry@gmail.com.

GCC Board to meet March 20 at Stafford Auto Tech Center

News Release

 

For Immediate Release · March 13, 2014

 

Michael Zitz

Director of Media and Community Relations

Germanna Community College

540/846-5163

mzbeckham@germanna.edu

 

 GCC BOARD TO MEET MARCH 20 AT STAFFORD AUTO TECH CENTER

 

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – The public is invited to attend the upcoming meeting of the Germanna Community College Board at 5 p.m on Thursday, March 20, 2014.  The meeting will take place in the conference room of the Germanna Stafford Automotive Technology Center at 42 BlackJack Road in Stafford County, A sign-up sheet will be made available 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting for those interested in addressing the board.

Among the items to be discussed:

 

--The College is awaiting a bid proposal from Stantec for a master plan study on the proposed Stafford site. Early estimates have been for a cost of about $300,000 for approximately eight to 10 offices in about a 1,400 by 1,500 square foot building.

 

 --Designing a modular building to house office and meeting space at the Germanna Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper.

--Completion of new signs at the Fredericksburg Area Campus, Locust Grove Campus and Daniel Technology Center is expected by summer pending permit approval. The signs will be 20 feet to 23.5 feet tall and 10 feet wide with an electronic component that will allow the digital display of  messages and alerts to oncoming traffic.

--Proposed Student Development course requirement change to require all curricular students, except those in career studies certificate programs, to take a student development course in their first semester, effective Fall 2014.

 --Enhancement of Veterans' Services, including offering courses through interactive video to active duty personnel at Dahlgren and a partnership between Germanna's Center for Workforce & Community Education and the GCC Veterans Office to make veteran students eligible to use veterans' benefits for two noncredit workforce credentialing programs.

 

 Germanna Community College is a two-year, public institution of higher education, serving a total headcount of about 13,000, including both students in academic courses and workforce development training, in the counties of Caroline, Culpeper, King George, Madison, Orange, Spotsylvania, Stafford and the city of Fredericksburg.

Award-winning poet Allan Peterson to speak at Germanna March 26

Poet Allan Peterson

Germanna will host a reading by award-winning poet Allan Peterson at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26 in Sealy Auditorium at the Fredericksburg Area Campus off U.S. 17 in Massaponax. It’s free and open to the public.



 Peterson’s fourth book of poetry, Fragile Acts (McSweeney's Poetry Series), was a finalist for both the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award and the Oregon Book Award.

He's the recipient of the 2006 Silver Spoon Award for service to the Arts and the 1989 recipient of the ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS award. 

He has been nominated for a Distinguished Recognition Award from the Florida Fine Arts Council and has received prizes for his original poetry from Arts and Letters, The Comstock Review, the California Quarterly and many others.

He will also talk to a GCC creative writing class about getting published and to a Germanna English class at Coffeewood Correctional Center that is part of a philanthrophist Doris Buffett-financed college education program for inmates.

 

 

General education and student success

Small class sizes, good options for student choices, faculty enthusiasm for teaching general education courses and excellent communication between deans who work together well were cited as Germanna Community College gen ed strengths during a faculty workshop featuring a well regarded state expert.

Faculty members Wen Maier, Bill Carter and Amanda Dowd
hear Prof. Sue Skinner during a Germanna faculty workshop 

A grant from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia secured by Dr. Ann Woolford made the workshop, “How Does General Education Lead to Student Success?” possible. It was organized by Prof. Cheryl Huff and Dean Shashuna Gray and led by Dr. Kathryne McConnell, assistant director of assessment at Virginia Tech and president elect of the Virginia Assessment Group.

"The workshop continued our active conversation about the role our Gen Ed Program plays in preparing our students for both ongoing education and their vocational lives," Prof. Huff said. "Faculty and administrators need to keep assessing and evaluating, and engaging in hands-on activities like this, with a knowledgable facilitator, helps us do that." 

General education addresses critical thinking, communication, quantitative and scientific reasoning, among other things.

About 40 GCC faculty members heard Dr. McConnell discuss the benefits of general education rubrics.

General education at community colleges is “so important,” Dr. McConnell said. “So many students are attending community colleges and that number is only going to grow.” Germanna currently serves a total headcount of about 13,000 students at campuses in Spotsylvania County and Locust Grove and centers in Culpeper County and Stafford County.